Lesson 1: Indicative refresh — forms, tense, and aspect

Why this matters

Spanish verbs encode person, number, tense, aspect, and mood in a compact system. If you once operated around B2/C1, the main problem after a long break is usually not ignorance but inactive structure: you remember pieces, but the contrasts no longer feel organized. This primer restores that organization.

You will review the indicative as the default assertion system, the present subjunctive as a clause-dependent mood tied to stance and subordination, and a practical method for choosing forms in mixed contexts. The focus is technical and selective: high-value contrasts, compact tables, and drills with explanations.

The map: tense, mood, conjugation

Start by separating three things:

• Conjugation: the inflected form itself (hablo, hablábamos, venga).
• Tense: temporal location relative to the speech point or another reference point.
• Mood: how the clause is framed grammatically — assertion, desire, reaction, anticipation, etc.

In this lesson, stay inside the indicative, the mood typically used for main-clause assertions and many subordinate clauses.

Compact refresher: hablar

What the contrast actually is

The preterite presents an event as a bounded whole: the speaker views it globally, with its limits in view, whether or not the event was physically brief.

The imperfect presents a situation from the inside, without foregrounding its boundaries. That makes it useful for background description, ongoing context, repeated past habit, and states.

The contrast is viewpoint, not simply duration. A long event can appear in the preterite if treated as a whole; a brief event can appear in the imperfect if framed as background or unfolding context.

Compare:

• Ayer leí el informe. — completed whole, viewed globally.
• Ayer leía el informe cuando llamaste. — ongoing background at the moment of interruption.
• De niño leía mucho. — habitual background in the past.

A few irregular reminders

High-frequency preterite irregulars worth reactivating first:

• ser / ir: fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron
• tener: tuve, tuviste, tuvo...
• estar: estuve, estuviste, estuvo...
• hacer: hice, hiciste, hizo...
• poder: pude, pudiste, pudo...
• venir: vine, viniste, vino...

Present irregular reminders:

• e→ie: pienso, quieres
• o→ue: puedo, vuelve
• e→i: pido, sigue
• 1st person irregulars often feed later subjunctive forms: tengo, vengo, hago, digo, conozco.

Recall drills

Choose each form before reading the answer key below.

1. Context: Marta closed the window once while we were eating dinner. Mientras cenábamos, Marta ___ la ventana. (cerrar)
2. Context: I am summarizing my completed three-month stay. En 2019 yo ___ en Chile tres meses. (vivir)
3. Context: I am describing my repeated childhood habit. De niño, yo siempre ___ temprano. (acostarse)

Answer key

1. cerró: the window closing is presented as one completed event within the background action cenábamos.
2. viví: the three-month stay is viewed as a completed whole. A long duration does not require the imperfect.
3. me acostaba: the imperfect describes a repeated past habit. The reflexive pronoun me matches the stated subject yo.

Different contexts can support other forms. These answers follow the contexts stated above.